Question

Life style diseases are increasing alarmingly in India. We are also dealing with large-scale malnutrition in the population. Is there any method by which we can address both of these problems together?

Answer 1

Increase in lifestyle diseases :

The fast and stressful lifestyle that we lead in the modern times have greatly affected our diet, feeding habits and daily routine. Increased intake of junk food, irregular meals, lack of sleep, etc have taken a toll on human health and incidences of diseases such as diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, etc.

Biofortification :

Biofortification is the process of enriching the nutritional quality of food crops by the use of conventional and modern biotechnological techniques. The plants produced by this technique contain higher levels of vitamins and minerals, high protein and healthier fats.

Biofortification has several benefits which makes it a suitable method by which problems like large-scale malnutrition and lifestyle diseases can be addressed.

Benefits of Biofortification :

• It focuses on production of nutritionally enhanced staple food such as wheat, rice, vegetables, etc which can be afforded by the lower income groups.
• It is sustainable and can be used in the long run for high yield crop production.
• It eliminates the dependence on dietary supplements, as essential nutrients can be obtained from food items in our day to day meals.